Kenya: Ballot count begins; charge levied at UK

An electoral worker engages in a part of the tally verification process at the National Tallying Center in Nairobi, Kenya Wednesday, March 6, 2013. Election officials in Kenya are counting by hand the ballots from the nation's presidential election after abandoning the electronic tabulation system which has posted early returns. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Election officials in Kenya began counting ballots by hand on Wednesday after the early returns electronic system broke down, while a top presidential candidate levied charges against Britain’s high commissioner that the U.K. is meddling in the vote.

The party of Deputy Prime Minster Uhuru Kenyatta — the candidate that faces charges at the International Criminal Court and is the son of Kenya’s founding president — accused the British high commissioner of “shadowy, suspicious and rather animated involvement” in efforts to get the election commission to make a decision on how rejected ballots should be counted in the overall vote total.

Kenyatta’s party also asked the high commissioner, Christian Turner, to explain what it called “the sudden upsure of British military personnel” in Kenya. British troops attend a six-week training course near Mount Kenya before deploying to Afghanistan. A new battle group arrived the week before Kenyans voted.

Kenyans on Monday held their first presidential vote since the nation’s disputed election in 2007 spawned violence that killed more than 1,000 people. Prime Minister Raila Odinga and Kenyatta are considered the top two contenders.

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Election observers from around the world said Wednesday that Kenya carried out a credible election on Monday, but the groups reserved final judgments until the counting process is completed.

Kenyans were growing increasingly frustrated that the announcements of public vote tallies have ceased close to 48 hours after polls closed. Kenya’s election commission was forced to abandon its electronic tallying system after it broke down.

The breakdown of the electronic vote system has meant less than half of results have been released, and officials — who have been working to ensure violence doesn’t break out this election — are calling on the public to remain patient.

Late Tuesday, the election commission chairman announced that hundreds of thousands of ballots that were rejected for not following the rules, would be counted in the overall vote total. That makes it very difficult, given the tight race, for either top candidate to reach the 50 percent mark needed to win outright.

Partial results on Tuesday had shown an early lead for Kenyatta, though his percentage will drop when the rejected votes are counted in the total. Odinga’s camp also told supporters that the votes from his strongholds had not yet all been tallied. An April runoff election between the two candidates is expected.

The statement from Kenyatta’s party on Wednesday implied that the British high commissioner pressured the commission to make the decision on the spoiled ballots, thus ensuring a runoff.

The Kenyatta statement said his party awaits answers to such questions, and it called on supporters “and the nation at large” to remain calm and peaceful.

William Ruto, Kenyatta’s running mate, on Tuesday had also blamed “foreign missions” for swaying the electoral commission on its ballot decision. The decision “is meant to deny us a first-round win,” Ruto was quoted as saying by The Standard newspaper.

Kenya is the lynchpin of East Africa’s economy and plays a vital security role in the fight against Somali militants. The U.S. Embassy in Kenya is the largest in Africa, indicating this country’s importance to U.S. foreign policy.

The U.S. has warned of “consequences” if Kenyatta is to win, as have several European countries. Because Kenyatta is an ICC indictee, the U.S. and Europe have said they might have to limit contact with him, even if he is president.